War, Clinton are targets in debate

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidates sparred last night over how to end the war in Iraq, and several candidates sought to put Senator Hillary Clinton on the defensive for her vote to authorize the war in 2002. She responded that the blame for the failures in Iraq lay not with Democrats but with President Bush.

With pressure mounting on candidates to set themselves apart in the crowded field, the eight contenders shed some of the collegiality of their previous group appearances and made direct challenges to the votes and positions of their opponents on matters ranging from healthcare to energy policy.

But the war in Iraq, a key issue for voters, dominated the debate last night, with Clinton a prime target in a session that had candidates bickering about who had stronger antiwar credentials and the best plan to end the conflict.

"It's the difference between leading and following," said for mer North Carolina senator John Edwards, faulting the current Congress -- including several lawmakers on the stage with him -- for failing to defeat a bill to continue funding for the war. He criticized both Clinton and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for waiting until the last moment to announce their "no" votes for the Iraq war supplemental funding bill last month.

"And others on this stage -- Chris Dodd spoke out very loudly and clearly. But . . . others did not," Edwards said, sounding unusually aggressive in his characterization of his former colleagues. "Others were quiet. They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislating."

The two-term New York lawmaker looked stoney-faced at Edwards during his remarks about the war, but avoided -- as front-runners tend to do -- attacking any of her primary opponents.

Clinton repeated her previous assertions that she was duped by the Bush administration into believing that the president would give the weapons inspectors more time to do their job. "This is George Bush's war. He is responsible for this war. He started the war. He mismanaged the war. He escalated the war. And he refuses to end the war," Clinton said, exhorting her fellow Democrats to remember they were united in their desires to end the war.

And Obama, who always opposed the war but was not tested by having to vote on it because he was not yet in the US Senate, shot back at Edwards, who has called his 2002 vote to authorize the war the biggest mistake of his political career. "The fact is that I opposed this war from the start. So you're about 4 1/2 years late on leadership on this issue," Obama said.

Obama, Clinton, and Dodd, Connecticut's senior senator, all voted against a $120 billion measure last month to continue funding for the war. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware has issued a plan to get the United States out of the war, but he voted for the Iraq funding bill.

"As long as there is a single troop in Iraq that I know if I take action by funding them, I increase the prospect they will not live or not be injured -- I cannot and will not vote 'no' to fund them," as long as such a vote can save lives or prevent troops from being injured, Biden said.

The debate, the first such meeting of the Democrats in the Granite State, was held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. It allowed the contenders to exchange views and comments more directly, instead of delivering only short responses to questions posed by interviewers, as was the format in the first debate in South Carolina. Joining the four senators and Edwards were Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and former Alaska senator Mike Gravel.

Seeking support in the critical, first-in-the-nation primary, the eight Democrats fought to distinguish themselves, highlighting their disparate resumes and arguing about such matters as how to pay for universal healthcare and how to handle the genocide in Darfur.

Richardson underscored his diplomatic experience as a former delegate to the United Nations, and took subtle shots at his colleagues in Congress, calling for the end to $30 billion in "earmarks" Congress approves to fund local projects in their states and districts.

Biden called for aggressive action in Darfur and said the campaign finance system, which has allowed the top contenders to raise record amounts, is responsible for the "earmarks" Richardson wants to eliminate.

Kucinich blasted his opponents for continuing to fund the war and deemed the USA Patriot Act as a serious assault on American civil liberties.

"Those who would give up their essential liberties to achieve a sense of security deserve neither," Kucinich said, quoting Benjamin Franklin. "The Patriot Act has undermined civil rights in this country."

Clinton cooly dismissed Edwards' s contention that the "war on terror" is a "bumper sticker" used by Bush to justify such actions as the Iraq war and the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. "I am a senator from New York. I have lived with the aftermath of 9 /11, and I have seen firsthand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists," she said.

She refused to apologize for her 2002 vote or to express specific regret at not having read the National Intelligence Estimate on whether Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction before casting her vote.

Only a handful of senators read the entire report, which was classified, and Clinton said she was fully briefed before her vote. But Edwards, trailing Clinton and Obama in many polls, needled the New York lawmaker and others for not standing up to Bush by refusing to approve any Iraq funding bill that does not include a withdrawal of troops.

The Democratic-led Congress did pass such a bill, but after Bush vetoed it May 1, lawmakers agreed to continue funding the war, while saying they would try again to deauthorize the war or force a drawdown of troops.

That didn't satisfy Gravel : "Sure, it's George Bush's war. But it's the Democrats' war also," Gravel said.